EU gives Poland three months to address rule-of-law concerns

The European Union today (27 July) handed Poland a three-month deadline to reverse changes to its constitutional court to meet EU concerns over the rule-of-law and democracy.

The move is the second step in an unprecedented procedure which could eventually see Warsaw’s voting rights suspended in the European council of ministers, the EU’s most important decision-making body.

“We now invite the Polish authorities to take action to solve these concerns and inform the commission of the steps taken within three months,” European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans told reporters.

Among the demands by the Commission are for the constitutional court rulings to be published. “What we are saying is that if the constitutional tribunal is to function, then when it issues a ruling… it must be published,” said Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister who has been locked in a tense six-month stand-off with Poland.

Poland’s conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party swept to power late last year and immediately pushed through legislation which critics say paralysed the constitutional court. It has also increased state control over public broadcasters, further straining relations with the EU which demands that all member states meet the same rule of law and democratic norms.

The founder of Poland’s biggest carbon quota brokerage firm, whose name appeared in connection with the Panama Papers, has been found guilty of VAT fraud and sentenced to jail in France. Warsaw denies wrongdoing, calling the multi-billion fraud an “unfortunate incident”. EURACTIV France reports.

The Commission launched an initial probe in January to see if the changes violated EU rules and warranted punitive measures. It formally warned Poland on 1 June to reverse the changes so as to remove a “systemic threat” to the rule-of-law, but said Warsaw had still failed to address the concerns despite further legislative amendments.

“The fundamental concerns are still unresolved,” Timmermans said, adding the court still did not have the full capacity to carry out a constitutional review. “This adversely affects its integrity, stability and proper functioning, which is one of the essential safeguards of the rule of law in Poland,” he said.

Albania’s governing and opposition parties passed a judicial reform package on Thursday (21 July), meeting a condition of the European Union for accession talks with the ex-Communist Balkan state.

Speaking to reporters in Krakow ahead of Pope Francis’s first visit to the country, Poland’s Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said he was “astonished by the European Commission’s decision”. The executive “should instead support the member states. They should concentrate on the fight against terrorism,” the minister said.

Without a satisfactory response in three months, the Commission, the European Parliament or a group of ten member states can propose Poland be stripped of its voting rights in EU institutions if it is guilty of serious and persistent breaches of the rule-of-law.

Positions

“Amnesty International has repeatedly called for decisive action from the European Commission to address serious human rights concerns within the European Union, particularly in the case of Hungary,” said Iverna McGowan, Head of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office. “Moving forward with this next step in the Rule of Law Framework shows commitment by the Commission to uphold human rights and hold Poland to account. The European Union should ensure all member states are subject to the same scrutiny when human rights are under threat.”

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Comments

EU Commission-bunch of the unelected bureaucrats, is sending an ultimatum to the EU member state -to democratic elected government with almost 90%votes !!! Really something is very very wrong with EU. No wonder that Brits voted for Brexit.

The EU was created by the member states. Politicians signed us up to things they would have been put in Prison for in any other walk of life & we are doing their sentences. It needs a complete revamp, the parliament is an expensive facade it isn’t proportionate smaller nations have too much weighted power & are unaccountable for their actions, it’s little wonder the Germans don’t want to shoulder the burden. There should be one MEP per million voters before there is any suggestion of the transfer of national power to the EU parliament. The Euro is a disater & should be voluntary. Membership of NATO with a complusion to abide by the 2% criteria should be mandatory anyone that doesnt pay their membership fee’s loses all rights to membership benefits.

“that doesnt pay their membership fee’s loses all rights to membership benefits.”
I call it federal fiscal policy ! Like the U.S. finally everyone is paying for it !! What’s wrong ?
Furthermore if they get a partial E.U. fund for the immigration then it is for the immigration and not for something else OR this is called corruption !! And if they cannot or want to comply for the common rules of law in an union then why are they still IN ?
The E.U. commission is right and I totally agree with Timmerman !

Would suggest YOU before hampering about bunch of un-elected none-sense TO LEARN base E.U. politics
Poland choiced for the european Union rules of law and not those from the pissed party law ! Anyway logically you can’t even compromise the base european constituent from the union if you are years inside ! Poland should in my opinion trigger immediately the Art.50 and givem’ to Russia 🙂 ! Maybe Polaks will live better in Russia by getting higher salaries .
Britain objectively seen i s economically in declining’ and politically very unstable ! UK has actually a newly un-elected by the way even comical Government which even didn’t take care on the petition of more than 4 Mio of signature for a 2nd ref. by ignoring even the consideration of its own parliament ! Lots of people in Britain were unfortunately trapped by lies of kippers and grumpies like you who just ignores the logically understanding of a subject !
There is nothing to wonder because Britain is still IN and remains still years or even a century if the bill number 50 hasn’t been triggerd IN !

Finally! It is about time that the EU stops playing mr. nice guy to everyone that wants to use it as a free lunch and doesn’t want to do anything for the EU or play by its rules.The EU stands for democracy and the rule of law. It has a democratically elected European Parliament that represents us all. It is about time that people who want to tamper with that or disrespect the EP get shown the exit door. No you do not get to use us.

What I find really amazing is that there are Poles who want to go back to 1939 and play into the hands of the Neville Chamberlains and revisit the authoritarianism of the likes of Józef Piłsudski, Haven’t you Poles learned anything from your history? Do you have to redo those lessons? What do you want to achieve? That Merkel and Putin divide you between the two of them?

At least Chamberlain ruled over an empire. All that May has is a not so united kingdom on a soggy island.